- full planning permission was granted in 2003
- tenants have since been gained for the hotel and office space
- a new consortium of Qatari banks are funding its development
- the consortium said recently they intend to begin work immediately
- the site was finally vacated last summer, and demolition began last December. This was halted for a while, as financial issues were resolved, but following the new consortium's announcement it has begun again. The site will be cleared around June/July.
- Mace are agreeing to a fixed-price construction contract

Cleveland Bridge is being tipped to carry out the steel contract on the Shard of Glass in London as front runners for the key subcontract packages on the 310 m-high building begin to emerge.

Main contractor Mace is due to make a series of decisions on trade contracts by the middle of next month before it makes a summer presentation to developer Teighmore, which has told it not to bust a £300 million budget.

The steelwork deal would be the Darlington firm's most high-profile scheme since the £60 million Wembley Stadium contract, which it turned its back on when it walked off that job nearly four years ago.

The firm has priced the work along with a rival team featuring ZNS, the sister firm of Dutch company Hollandia - the contractor that ended up replacing Cleveland Bridge at Wembley - and Belgian contractor Victor Buyck.

A winner is expected to be named in May with the deal carrying a price tag of about £25 million for 11,000 tonnes of steel.

Steel will be used in the first 42 storeys of the project, which will house hotel and commercial space, with the next 30 floors residential and featuring a concrete frame, before steel is used again in the remaining floors.

Two firms, Byrne Bros and John Doyle, are pricing the concrete contract, also expected to come in at around £25 million, with Mace due to make an announcement on the winner after the steel contract has been sorted.

Demolition firm Keltbray finally began tearing down the main fabric of the existing building this week as part of its £7 million contract at the site, which is next door to London Bridge railway station. It has been on site for more than two months carrying out asbestos removal.

Mace is hoping piling work, which will be carried out by Stent, can begin by July with construction work finishing in 2011. The M&E deal is expected to be the last major package to be sorted out with the contract split into two. Phoenix Electrical is one firm looking at the deal.

Legendary project director leaves Atkins to lead development of 312m London Bridge tower

Bernard Ainsworth, the project director of the Millennium Dome, has been brought in to head the development of the 312m Shard tower for Sellar Property Group.

Ainsworth is leaving Atkins, where he is currently projects director, to project manage the Shard, and the surrounding London Bridge Quarter.

Ainsworth, 61, said he had intended to retire this year from his role at Atkins but changed his mind after he received Sellar’s offer. His work for Atkins included a secondment to doomed London Underground consortium Metronet.

He will start his job on 14 April. He said: “I am very excited. I’m a project management guy, I like big projects and the Shard is a great project.”

Ainsworth, who is in Building’s Hall of Fame, made his name on the Millennium Dome before becoming chief operating officer for the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, which was lauded for regenerating the east of the city.

Ainsworth’s title is project managing director with specific responsibility for the £2bn London Bridge Quarter, which includes the Shard development.

The 72-storey Shard has an estimated construction value of £350m. Building revealed last week that Mace, which is building it under a fixed-price contract, may revert to a construction management procurement route if a deal is not agreed by September.

Irvine Sellar, chairman of Sellar Property Group, said: “We’re absolutely delighted to have attracted one of the construction industry’s leading builders to lead what we believe to be Britain’s most prestigious regeneration project.

“He has a superlative track record of delivering large and complicated construction projects on time and within budget.”